It has been estimated that, at any given time during the day, more than 800,000 vehicles in the United States are being driven by a person using a cell phone. Today's drivers use a variety of hand-held devices, such as cell phones, MP3 players, personal digital assistants, and navigation devices, when they are behind the wheel. While there are laws limiting the use of hands in operating these devices, research has shown that the cognitive distraction in using these devices is significant enough to degrade a driver's performance, even when using hands-free devices.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Association (NHTSA) statistics, 5,474 people were killed in crashes involving driver distraction in 2009, which was 16% of the total fatalities. Additionally, the proportion of fatalities reportedly associated with driver distraction increased from 10 percent in 2005 to 16 percent in 2009. During that time, fatal crashes with reported driver distraction also increased from 10 percent to 16 percent. Furthermore, an estimated 20 percent of 1,517,000 injury crashes in 2009 were reported to have involved distracted driving. The increased use of devices such as smart phones for texting and talking is the likely culprit behind these alarming statistics.
What is needed is a system, device and method for alerting drivers to upcoming traffic conditions, such as red lights, stop signs, traffic jams, road conditions or the like.